The Staatsoper clearly have superior heldentenor emergency planning. Andreas Schager was ready to go just five minutes after the scheduled start. And he's one of the few working tenors who've actually sung the role before (to some acclaim). Of course he couldn't manage the staging as well at that notice, so one of the assistant directors walked the role while Schager sang from the wings. (Listen to him singing Rienzi).

Schager finished Act 1 to a true - and deserved - hero's ovation. Ryan, meanwhile, was still MIA. Finally, towards the end of the interval, I learned from front of house staff that Ryan had just turned up. No explanation. The Staatsoper announcer came on stage again to announce he would be singing the rest, leaving Schager just enough time to make his Berlin Philharmonic booking. Again no explanation.

Ryan, always a convincing actor, put on an extra-committed show. At the curtain call, he threw up his hands in apology. But still no explanation.

So what happened? Travel delays? (Ryan was in Vienna the previous night.) Possible, but you'd think he'd alert Berlin if he knew he'd be late. Did he just overlook the unusually early 4pm start? Or is there some exotic and fabulously embarrassing reason of the dog-swallowed-the-keys-to-the-handcuffs variety? Any clues welcome.

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Well if that was my costume as Siegfried, going AWOL would probably be the least of my derelictions...

However, we do also have with Mr. Ryan the case of the never-appearing tenor. Read his own website, and you will learn the following: "He performed Bacchus at the State Opera in Dresden and in Vienna, at the Royal Opera House in London, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and at the Metropolitan Opera New York."

Except: Lance Ryan has never sung at the ROH (naturally: the dark army of Katonites clearly hard at work as per usual, doing what they do best; keeping people out).

As for the Berlin bust, it may be little (sic) more than happened about ten or so years ago here, at the RFH, when Mikko Franck was due to conduct the Philharmonia, only for the concert not to start for over 45 minutes. When it did finally get underway, there was no official explanation; but enquiry amongst the Phil's frontliners revealed that he had been fast asleep in his room in the Cumberland Hotel, and that his alarm had failed to go off to rouse him from his nap (though I much preferred speculation that a ditzy dominatrix had left him chained to a fire-escape...)

We heard from the "rumours" amongst the staff in the Foyer that Lance Ryan thought the starting time was 17:00. But I would have thought that he'd have come to the Theater at least one hour before the performance, even if he mistook 16:00 for 17:00?!

Are you going to the Staatskapelle concert with Villazon tomorrow evening?
Enjoy Götterdämmerung!

And I honestly thought the person making the announcement for the opera was a man. Apparently, das ist kein mann...!!!!
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Intermezzo replies - I did wonder about that - you could be right. Looked like a man, but sounded like a woman. Appropriately enough.

You caption your picture as "The late Lance Ryan" but fortunately he was still alive. I have experienced a performance of Falstaff being delayed because the lead singer had not turned up and they could not contact him, but before the emergency replacement arrived they discovered that the original one had sadly been found dead. Then they were all so shocked they cancelled the performance completely.

According to press release that the Staatsoper just sent out, there was a misunderstanding about curtain time, causing Lance Ryan to show up late. Schager was in the building at 3.45 p.m., 15 min. before curtain time, namely on the rehearsal stage on the third floor, where he was preparing for his debut in Götterdämmerung on Wednesday, and immediately agreed to take over the part.

Which is yet another reason for opera houses to stop this absurd thing of beginning long operas at odd early hours in order to avoid paying for overtime, or making the customers go home at a shockingly late hour, like, midnight.

Don Carlo, supposedly a matinee, began at 11 AM on a Saturday in March at the Met. Ridiculous.

Well, many German opera houses start earlier on Sundays for the sake of families and elderly operagoers as well as to draw visitors from other towns who can still get a train back home (I was at the performance last night in Berlin and was still able to get back to Hannover after the show). And as far the Met is concerned, they do a performance on Saturday evenings as well and need several hours at least between shows. The 11 AM curtain for Don Carlo was an extreme case, but they were also doing Francesca da Rimini in the evening with an 8 pm. curtain

If the opera is long they have *got* to start early, it is not "absurd" at all.

I interpret your reference to midnight as a "shockingly late hour" as being sarcastic but the fact is if the opera finishes after 11pm a lot of people will be unable to get a train home, and therefore they probably would not book in the first place. We do not all live in cities with transport systems that carry on all night, some of us (including me when I go to performances in London) come from a long way out and face journeys of two hours or more to get home. Tonights Nabucco at the ROH should finish by 10.30, but I do not expect to be home before 1am.

One key complaint I hear from many is the fact that the ROH does virtually no matinees. These people now go to Paris, and can get home again afterwards.
As for Lance Ryan his Florestan in Vienna on Wednesday was in poor voice, I would have hated to have had to have sat through his effort at Siegfied.

The Paris Opera Sunday matinees are very popular not just with visitors from the UK , but also from Holland and Belgium, and their highly efficient marketing and subscriptions deliberately target this market.
Even with a 19.15 curtain I comfortably made the 20.00 hours Eurostar after last weekend's Siegfried and was back in London at a reasonable time.
Even better are the occasional matinees at Opera de Lille where you have time for lunch, see the show and be still be back in London in time for tea.